Chapter 79 – Surrounded (1)

Jin-su’s sudden disappearance further fueled chaos in the safe zone.

The people he brought, now the Apostle’s new believers, ransacked the safe zone looking for Jin-su,

And the Apostle, unable to contain his anger, lashed out at everyone.

Because of this, Seo Eun, who had last met him, suffered.

She had to tell the story of meeting him several times and face people’s suspicions.

Eventually, the next morning, people rushed to imprison her.

Though thwarted by her husband’s interference, Jin-su and the Apostle’s people hurled verbal abuse at Seo Eun while retreating.

The next morning, we witnessed this scene when we stopped by the management department office before going on reconnaissance.

“Stop this! Why are you causing a disturbance here?”

Yerim shouted first upon seeing the scene.

“How dare you question what the believers are doing! Do you want to be expelled too…”

The man who had burst out at Yerim’s shout stopped speaking when he saw us.

Others also closed their mouths one by one.

Looking at those people, I could understand why they fell silent upon seeing us.

They were all people we knew.

Most of the people confronting Seo Eun were those we had brought from the government complex.

Thinking about it, they had all been saved by us and had fully witnessed our abilities when coming to this safe zone.

While they could treat Seo Eun and even her psychic husband roughly since they hadn’t directly seen us fight, they couldn’t do the same with us.

When Yerim stepped forward and we watched from behind, they stopped hurling insults and left the office.

Even while retreating, they continued their threats until the end.

“If you keep spreading nonsense about the captain after this, we won’t just back down like this next time, so you’d better be prepared!”

After people withdrew, Seo Eun sighed looking around the trashed office.

She reassured the worried Yerim, then explained the situation to us.

“I should have kept hiding it, I guess I shouldn’t have told the truth. No one believes what I said.”

It seemed she had told people what Jin-su said yesterday after yielding to their threats.

Since they were words revealing Jin-su’s true nature, it was natural people wouldn’t believe them.

I wondered why they were suddenly causing trouble for Seo Eun, but there was a reason.

After people left, Seo Eun’s husband started organizing the scattered office equipment and items he lifted effortlessly,

And Seo Eun tilted her head looking at us.

“But why did you come here?”

“As we told the Apostle yesterday, we came to report that we’re going on reconnaissance today.”

At my words, Seo Eun asked again with a puzzled expression.

“What? My position ended yesterday though? You should tell someone else about reconnaissance departures. I just came to get my things.”

“The person who should receive reports disappeared. Since you haven’t done a handover anyway, please receive my report too.”

Seo Eun gaped at my words.

“Ah… Could things turn out that way?”

I shrugged at Seo Eun’s words.

“You could ignore everything and quit, but you don’t seem like someone who would do that.”

“Sir Yeager, you strangely seem to know me well every time.”

Seo Eun, who had sighed at my words, looked at me with a curious expression.

I stared at that face and said.

“Because your personality shows on your face.”

Seo Eun tilted her head sideways at my words.

“Really? But no one has ever read my personality from my face. Even my husband misunderstood at first?”

“Haha, I also thought you were just an extremely sharp person. I was scared at first!”

Jaeha, who was setting up an overturned desk, cut in laughing loudly at Seo Eun’s words.

“No, a husband shouldn’t do that!”

“That was only when I first saw her! Now I notice so well!”

When Jaeha cut in, Yerim immediately scolded him, and Jaeha laughingly deflected her words.

As the two exchanged trivial talk, the harsh atmosphere softened somewhat.

While the two continued chatting, Seo Eun was lost in thought.

She muttered quietly.

“No, there was one person. One person said the same thing as Sir Knight…”

There was no need to ask who it was.

I spoke right away.

“Let’s end the small talk here, our party will scout north Daejeon today. We plan to go as far as possible to check if the octopus is coming.”

I seemed to have cut in at the right time.

Seo Eun immediately came to her senses and made a request.

“Though I’m reluctant, could you look for Mr. Jin-su while scouting? Since he’s a psychic too, he might have gone outside the sanctuary.”

Whether Seo Eun’s request was from goodwill or annoyance at the troublemakers, I couldn’t tell,

But I accepted her request.

“Alright. We’ll do that.”

Of course, there was zero possibility of finding traces of Jin-su in the northern area we planned to go today.

It was easy to pretend to search in a situation where we were certain nothing would be found.

“Though it would be good to have you all here with things being chaotic here too, that wouldn’t work. You can do much more outside than inside here… Though I don’t know if they’ll listen, I’ll tell the Apostle. Take care then.”

Seo Eun sent us off with a regretful face, and Yerim waved to her while heading out.

“We’ll be back, so stay close to brother-in-law.”

“You be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me. When I’m with the party members, I’m the safest in the world.”

After finishing our report, we headed to the marshalling yard station north of the safe zone through the underground tunnel.

Unlike the south where undead had decreased to invisibility, the marshalling yard hadn’t changed much since the initial decrease.

The Demon King’s army was only gathering undead from the south.

Whether because the lich’s orders didn’t reach here, or for some other reason, was unknown.

“We plan to go as far north as possible today, so everyone follow well.”

Though everyone nodded at my words, Yerim stopped mid-nod and asked carefully.

“You won’t carry me on your back again this time, will you?”

Yerim seemed bothered by me carrying her on my shoulders yesterday.

I kindly told her.

“If you keep up well.”

“I’ll follow even if it kills me, so please don’t carry me without warning.”

She clenched both fists as she spoke at my words.

“Was it uncomfortable? You seemed fine then. If it’s really uncomfortable, should I carry you?”

“No. Being carried by Sir Knight is better than being carried by Mr. Hoffman.”

Hoffman tried to cut in from the side but lowered his head at Yerim’s words.

“And while we go, look around carefully. Don’t just look for undead, check if there are living people too.”

Though just a formality, I had to give instructions for later.

Hearing my words, Hoffman scratched his head, but Yerim pouted.

“Where could he have gone? Just causing trouble for sister Seo Eun. That Jin-su person is really terrible.”

Unlike Hoffman who caught on right away, Yerim believed my words about returning right after the two parted.

I couldn’t tell how Zahina took my words.

Though she had changed a lot from other elves, Zahina was still an elf.

I had no idea what she was thinking hearing my words.

Since there weren’t absolutely no undead on the northern road, we decided to follow the railway.

The northbound railway had high walls on both sides and continued as an elevated track.

Though not helpful for scouting surroundings, there was no better path for quick movement.

Fortunately there were no stopped trains in between, so we could reach Sintanjin before lunch with almost no interference.

We stopped before crossing the Geumgang River past Sintanjin.

Though the midday sun still hung high and we could go further, there was no need to.

No, we shouldn’t go further.

We could tell enough from here.

“It’s that thing. Coming this way.”

The railway bridge being much higher than the highway bridge beside it, we could see far from here.

Though we couldn’t directly see the octopus’s head due to hills, we could feel the creeping death energy.

It was the octopus’s death energy I’d remembered since first seeing it on the bridge.

Somehow, the death energy was larger and denser than when first seen or when it destroyed buildings.

“Is that dark red thing death energy? It feels different from the death energy we saw where the skeleton mage was. That made my skin crawl, but this feels sticky somehow. Ugh… I hate this too.”

Yerim rubbed her arms while looking at the northern sky with us.

Yerim was certainly fitting for a cleric with holy power. Unlike other awakened ones, she easily distinguished death energy.

“Is it really that thing? It seems denser than before.”

I nodded at Hoffman’s question.

“Yes. It’s definitely gotten darker.”

Hoffman clicked his tongue at my words.

“Just what did it eat while coming here.”

Hoffman’s words reminded me of when it was destroying buildings.

Unless it was eating other undead, there was only one thing it could eat.

“So that’s why it was late, it was spending time eating and digesting prey.”

Though cold words, Zahina was right.

At its initial speed chasing us, it couldn’t have followed this late.

After losing us, it had slowly followed our scent while eating prey.

Or maybe it just came south.

But it was certain the creature had followed us.

Though without evidence, my senses here told me this fact.

I could instinctively tell that if we went any closer from here, it would notice us.

I didn’t know how I knew this.

My senses, my mana detection just told me so.

However, it didn’t seem necessary to tell others about this.

“At this speed, maybe two days?”

“Yes. About a day to reach where we are, and another day to the safe zone.”

Zahina checked the wind and nodded at my words.

Then Hoffman spoke with an indifferent expression.

“Internal strife at its peak, Demon King’s army in the south, octopus in the north… This is no ordinary crisis.”

Yerim glared at Hoffman.

“If it’s a crisis, why do you look like that?”

“It’s a crisis for the safe zone, not for us.”

When Hoffman shrugged, Yerim glared at him.

“If you talk like that, I’ll get angry!”

Oh right, come to think of it, our party wasn’t unrelated to the safe zone.

Until now our party had no connection to this world, but that wasn’t true anymore.

And we couldn’t drive away Yerim who was a cleric.

I clicked my tongue softly.

Looks like I might have to carry Yerim and run depending on the situation.